Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex (1567-1601) was the leading figure of Elizabeth's court during the 1590s. Essex was the stepson of Elizabeth's favorite Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who had married Essex's mother Lettice Knollys after he despaired of ever marrying Elizabeth herself. Essex first won acclaim as a young soldier during Leicester's military campaign in the Netherlands in 1586. After the death of Leicester, he gathered around himself a circle of young men attracted to his bold and chivalric style. In 1599 Essex was sent with an army to Ireland to subdue the Earl of Tyrone. He failed, and upon his return to England, had an angry confrontation with Elizabeth, who subsequently deprived him of offices and revenues. After his futile uprising in 1601, Essex was executed. Subsequent romances have invented an image of Essex as Elizabeth's lover, and have depicted the queen as a jealous older woman besotted with her handsome young courtier.